This article demonstrates how a Web-Enhanced Multimedia System for
Project Management was developed and used, and then tested for its
educational effectiveness. The design of this system was based on the
premise that the use of educational multimedia should have a basis and a
purpose. This multimedia system, Web Enhanced Multimedia Learning
Environment (WEMLE) for Project Management, is based on the simulation
of the way project management is taught within an undergraduate course
at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). It incorporates
established educational concepts and the latest in web-based multimedia
design. The multimedia materials were developed in conjunction with the
Distance and e-Learning Centre (DEC) of USQ. The project was funded and
supported by both the Faculty of Business and DEC. The feedback received
so far has been extremely encouraging in terms of the system's
teaching and learning effectiveness.

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Technologies associated with the Internet have added an additional
dimension to modern computing. These technologies create an ideal
environment for designing interactive multimedia materials, and
delivering and distributing them in a very cost-effective manner.
However, as in any teaching material, the bottom line in multimedia
development is that it should also be able to convey the knowledge and
underlying concepts to learners.

Web-enhanced multimedia does not have to reside entirely on the Web
either. In a clever way, it can have static parts on a compact disk
(CD), and seamlessly link with the dynamic parts on the Web. For
instance, these multimedia materials can be run from a CD or even a mini
CD and link with the web-based components. WEMLE is available on CD-ROM and the Web (http://www.usq.edu.au/course/material/MGT2102).

Project Management was chosen mainly due to the fact that it is a
very popular subject and set of skills. Almost every business school in
the world would find it interesting and relate to it. Hence, it was
possible to receive feedback from a wider audience around the world.

For the purposes of this educational system, a project consists of
a number of activities that produce an outcome in a collective manner
and where there are defined starting and ending points in time. For
instance, constructing a space station, building a bridge, arranging an
overseas trip, writing a paper, or even making a cup of coffee may
constitute a project. One of the main goals is to determine the shortest
completion time, and thus the critical activities.

This research project proposed to prepare multimedia-teaching
materials to correspond with the existing static paper-based materials,
and to ascertain the perceptions of students who were invited to
experience the additional materials for this module. A specially
designed questionnaire was also incorporated into the system, and this
instrument was used to collect the survey data.

In the next section, we will examine some of the latest and current
projects related to the topic of our work.

RELATED AND SIMILAR PROJECTS

Similar studies are being done in other universities (Wilson &
Whitelock 2002; UniNews Online 2000), but these have had a different
perspective.

The study carried out at the University of Melbourne by the
Teaching and Learning (Multimedia and Educational Technologies)
Committee (UniNews Online 2000) concluded that "... students using
educational technology believe it is useful in their learning and,
significantly, the targeted group reported much higher levels of
satisfaction. The students highlighted interactivity, flexibility of
access, feedback and clarity of information as the key benefits."
This was a broad ranging study and did not have a "business"
education perspective.

Wilson and Whitelock (2002) carried out a study in 1995 comparing
face-to-face teaching and the online equivalent, but the perspective was
mainly from the tutors' point of view, and was based on a course in
computing at undergraduate level. The benefits identified centered on
improved access to knowledge, improved social interaction, and improved
motivation through exposure to a new teaching medium. They recommended
future studies consider techniques to compensate for the lack of visual
and verbal clues that accompany electronic communication.

Research studies involving meta-analysis of other studies
(Fletcher, 1996) looking at the application of technology to education
have concluded that there are identifiable benefits, including the
following:

* Technology improves instructional effectiveness;

* Technology reduces time to reach instructional objectives
(concluding that "reductions of about 30% in the time it takes
students to reach a variety of instructional objectives seem to be a
good bet");

* Technology appears to be equally effective for knowledge and
performance outcomes (which is the case with project management, of
which large parts are skills based e.g., work breakdown structures,
network schedules); and

* Technology can be used to teach "soft skills"
(applicable to many areas of business).

Fletcher (1996) concluded that now starts the "difficult work
of learning how to integrate our new technological opportunities into
classroom practice." To assist in this regard, a large body of
research exists into how instructional materials can be created using
technology. The Association for Educational and Communication
Technologies (AECT 2001) has produced extensive guidelines for the
development of instructional materials using technology for improved
learning.

In some cases multimodal presentations ... may indeed improve
learning. They are particularly likely to be beneficial when
information is encoded via multiple coding mechanisms. Individuals
possess multiple channels through which information may be encoded.
For example, information presented in pictures may be encoded once
as a picture and then again by the verbal description given to the
picture. In contrast, text is encoded only once, via a verbal
channel. Information that is processed more than once often adds to
its retrievability. This so-called "dual-coding" of information ...
essentially doubles the probability that it will be recalled (AECT
2001).

Next is presented the main objectives of the WEMLE project.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT

The University of Southern Queensland (USQ 2002) specifically
requires study materials to "demonstrate how students will graduate
with the following attributes:

As the following indicates, many of these attributes can be
enhanced through the use of multimedia teaching materials.

Module 1 (Project Management) of USQ Course MGT2102 (Optimisation Applications) has nominated the learning objectives (Nooriafshar 2002,
p. 1.1) for students to include having familiarisation with, and the
ability to apply:

* work breakdown structure;

* network construction and application;

* Gantt charts; and

* concepts and methods to a variety of management/business
problems.

These essential business tools and skills are not static knowledge
constructs, and are best taught and illustrated with dynamic teaching
methods, illustrating the relationship between the various tools, and
how they constantly vary to reflect changing project circumstances.
Multimedia teaching materials can provide the dynamic quality lacking in
paper-based teaching materials.

The main purpose of this project is to identify and compare the
effectiveness of teaching/learning by web-enhanced multimedia systems
with traditional methods of business education. Hence, a single course
module on the use of optimisation methods in project management, which
is part of a Faculty of Business undergraduate course, was chosen as a
typical representative educational component. Screen-based Macromedia
Flash-driven objects using USQ's COOLTOOLS were utilised to develop
interactive concept animations.

The system was up and running on Semester 2, 2002. A Faculty/USQ
approved Learning Management System (LMS) such as the WebCT Vista will
be also used as the development and delivery environment in the near
future. This system may also be adopted as a typical model of teaching
materials for business using the latest technologies in a LMS
environment. The following provides an insight into the educational
philosophy adopted in designing WEMLE.

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

If we can use the study notes and teach the subject in a
face-to-face manner, then what is the purpose of simulating that
situation and storing it as multimedia? The purpose is to capture and
record the face-to-face teaching experience in a neat and rehearsed
format with a lot of interactivity and make it available for all
learners. The learners can then have the opportunity of recreating the
classroom situation to suit their learning preferences. Others who have
not had the opportunity of attending the lectures can also be exposed to
a similar experience. Therefore, students will have the opportunity of
having more control in the learning process.

Will the learning outcome be superior to the traditional
face-to-face teaching? There is no doubt that a dedicated, skilled, and
knowledgeable teacher who uses speech, drawings, text, and who possesses
patience and willingness to repeat and interact with students represents
perhaps the ideal "multimedia." It is rather hard to beat this
kind of face-to-face learning. Looking at the audience (learners) and
reading their facial expressions to assess whether they fully understand
is most effectively achieved in a traditional way of teaching. Hence,
the medium of body language is probably less likely to be a part of any
current computer-based multimedia system. Who knows, in a not too
distant future, we may be able to achieve that too.

An analogy for comparing face-to-face teaching with its simulation
would be the difference between a movie and a play. For instance a
well-known classic musical movie can be watched at a cinema, on
television or video/DVD; or it can be seen as a stage production. We all
know that even a locally produced play with average cast and limited
background scenes, would have a special feel about it. If we regard a
lecture as the play then multimedia will be the movie (recorded) version
of it. Hence, like some of the successful movies, which are based on
plays, multimedia would be based on lectures or practised and tested
teaching sessions. As with a movie, multimedia can also include
additional sound and vision effects, but the basis as suggested earlier,
is an important factor for its success.

Next is presented a short summary of research findings to date.

FINDINGS

As Figure 1 and Figure 2 show, the multimedia features of the
system (sound and text control features) cater to different learning
styles.

For instance, learners can view:

* the animation of concepts and listen to the voiceover (visual and
aural);

* the animation of concepts, listen to the voiceover and read the
voiceover transcript (visual, aural and text); or

* the animation of concepts and read the voiceover transcript with
the audio switched off (visual and text).

The voiceover transcript can be viewed by way of a dropdown window
as shown in Figure 2.

Data is being collected on a continuous basis through a specially
developed survey instrument. Analysis of data collected so far (41 at
the time of writing) demonstrates that WEMLE has been very successful as
indicated in Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 5 illustrates the users' learning modal preference with
regard to this multimedia system. Visual features and interaction with
the system appear to be most popular amongst the users. Almost every
user who favoured the system's interactive tools suggested that
ease of understanding was the reason.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

In addition to receiving formal feedback from the users, the system
was also presented to several universities in the United States and
Europe. The very encouraging feedback from those who viewed the system
has also demonstrated this project's success at an international
level. Therefore, the educational effectiveness of WEMLE was put to the
test both from learning (formal student feedback) and teaching
(presentation feedback) viewpoints.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

CONCLUSION

This research project was carried out to determine the
effectiveness of incorporating web-enhanced multimedia teaching
materials into undergraduate subjects in a business faculty. The
multimedia materials were made available to students in parallel to
existing paper-based materials used in face to face teaching and
distance education, so that a direct comparison could be made by
students and the effectiveness gauged. Feedback was also obtained from
external students and academics from other institutions to gauge
perceptions of teaching and learning effectiveness. Analysis of the
results indicated that students view all aspects of the multimedia
system's influence on their learning positively, and it is
envisaged that the feedback and the experience gained from this project
will be valuable in the establishment of guidelines for preparation of
multimedia teaching materials for other areas of education within the
Faculty of Business.

Association for Educational and Communication Technology (AECT)
(2001). Research on and research with emerging technologies, Ch 12. In
D. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications
and technology. Retrieved May 22, 2002 from
http://www.aect.org/Intranet/Publications/edtech/12/12-02.html

Fletcher, J.D. (1996). Does this stuff work? Some findings from
applications of technology to education and training. Proceedings of
Conference on Teacher Education and the Use of Technology Based Learning
Systems. Warrenton, VA: Society of Applied Learning Technology.

UniNews Online (2000), University of Melbourne, Teaching and
Learning (Multimedia and Educational Technologies) Committee. Retrieved
May 22, 2002 from http://www.unimelb.edu.au/ExtRels/Media/UN/archive/2000/517/itreview.html